HostMonster vs. Just Host: Features and Pricing Breakdown

You hear about a lot of crazy shared hosting companies here and it’s not just because we’re on an immortal quest to discover the best one for your readers. Well, okay, that’s exactly what we’re doing – and part of that quest means not only reviewing the individual companies themselves, but pitting them against each other in hand-to-hand combat and comparing their features directly.

Sites like HostMonster and Just Host are why we do this thing in the first place – they’re quality hosting sites that offer a lot of bargain for the dollar, which means you end up keeping things simpler on your end while they’re busy trying to keep you stocked with features and services.

These are two of the better hosting sites I’ve personally come across, and a quick glance at the features and pricing should convince you of the same. Let’s take a closer look – table style.

Their Features

What’s the main difference between the two hosting companies here? Surprisingly, very little. The big issues – disk space, band with, add-on domains and the like – are both “unlimited” whether you decide to go with Just Host or HostMonster. That’s good news. But we aren’t satisfied with looking at just a few variables, so here’s some extra information to wrap your mind around:

Feature

HostMonster

Just Host

Disk Space

Unlimited

Unlimited

Bandwith

Unlimited

Unlimited

Add-on Domains

Unlimited

Unlimited

Money-back guarantee

Uptime guarantee

Anytime

Dedicated IP

Unspecified

“Available”

Anonymous FTP

Unspecified

Yes

POP3 Email Accounts

“Support” Unlimited

Unlimited

Email Autoresponding

Yes

Yes

Mail Forwarding

Yes

Yes

MySQL Databases

Yes

Yes

Google AdWords Credit

$75

$50

International Domain Names

Yes

Yes

CGI

Yes

Yes

PHP 5

Yes

Yes

Spam Assassin Protection

Yes

Yes

Customer Support

24 hours/day

24 hours/day

Python

Yes

Yes

Ruby on Rails

Yes

Yes

Flash

Yes

Yes

Unlimited

Unlimited

Unlimited

Uptime guarantee

Unspecified

Unspecified

“Support” Unlimited

Yes

Yes

Available

$75

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

24 hours/day

Yes

Yes

Yes

It’s one of the most comparable matchups we’ve had, which means the rest of the battle will have to be settled via steel cage match. Or, you know, looking at their pricing options, I guess.

Pricing

Pricing Commitment

HostMonster

Just Host

1 Year

$5.95/month

$6.95/month

2 Years

$5.95/month

$5.95/month

3 Years

$5.95/month

$4.95/month

Monthly

Unspecified

$8.95/month

Conclusions there? Well, dang it, the sites are still pretty comparable. Just get the Just Host 2-or-3-year plan and you’re locked in at the stable HostMonster prices. (By the way, if your interest is piqued with all of this HostMonster talk, be sure to check out our Hostmonster Review at Web Hosting Craze.) We do like the lower price of the lower-commitment 1-year HostMonster plan, but that’s just a slight advantage, and not something to write home about.

Separating the Two

If we know all of these features and prices are pretty much the same, how do you really separate the two host companies? Well, a few issues that you’ll likely have to discover on a personal level, such as:

Customer service quality

Uptime percentage

Ease of billing

These are only things you can really discover once you’re a customer at either HostMonster or Just Host (speaking of which, Just Host has also been reviewed at Web Hosting Craze). Which means that, sadly, we can’t give you a definitive answer here. But, hey, sometimes it’s nice to know that there’s not only one good option for your hosting needs. If only every buying experience we had online was like that these days.

Dan Kenitz is a former professional search marketing specialist based in Wisconsin and current freelance writer, commentator, and all-around entrepreneur.

Related Crazes

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Luckily, the two web hosts we’re featuring today aren’t exactly bank-breakers; but even though $5/month or so isn’t enough to make you fret about web hosting prices, you’ll always want to be on the lookout for that one hosting company that does it all right. »

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2 comments

You say that these are 2 of the better quality sites you’ve come across, but have you actually been a customer of both? I had a site hosted on Just Host and the entire experience was terrible. Their support is a joke. Their system would repeatedly automatically block my IP for no reason, making my own site unavailable to me, they have no communication between their support and billing departments, poor record keeping and overall just a very unpleasant experience. I transferred away from them as soon as I was able. So between the two hosts, I would recommend against Just Host.

Alex, it sounds like Just Host’s firewall settings needed to be toned down. I’ve seen this happen with other hosts as well who are paranoid about client sites getting hacked. Support and billing should be the easy part, but so many seem to get that wrong.